The Maker has been one of the most influential short films of the past few years winning 22 festival awards, being viewed online by millions of people and inspiring a diversity of fan projects. Check out some of these amazing creations that are firmly planting The Maker into our popular culture.

The Maker wins ‘Best Film’ at this years Greek-Australian Short Film Festival held at the Palace Cinema Como in Melbourne, which is part of the larger ‘Greek Film Festival’ now in its 20th year! Of the nine short films in competition, the judging panel said ‘The Maker provided unrivalled concoction of a rare imagination, splendid artistry; a metaphor on time and life…which was visually beautiful.’ Many thanks to the festival and judges for acknowledging our little film!

What a month November has been for The Maker. We had already picked up 5 awards and now another 4 from the Bondi Short Film Film Festival. They include the People’s Choice Award, Best Music, Best Production Design and BEST FILM. It’s such a huge honour for our film to continue to receive the recognition it has had and is a testament to the amazing work put in by all those involved in its creation.

The Maker has won both the ‘Best Selection’ and ‘Audience Choice’ awards in the ‘Fantasy Short Film’ competition at the Kaohsiung Film Festival. Now in its 12th year, this Taiwanese film festival claims to be the only international short film contest in Taiwan and is hosted by the Kaohsiung Film Archive and the Bureau of Cultural Affairs. This recent win bumps our awards tally up to 17!

The Maker has picked up another award, this time for ‘Best Animation’ at the Couch Fest Film Festival. This festival is unique from all others in that it’s hosted in people’s houses all over the world all on one day. What a great idea! If you’d like to volunteer your living room or other services to the festival, you can do so here.

While tech companies usually dominate Silicon Valley, The Maker recently took the spotlight by winning ‘Best Animated Film’ at the San Jose Short Film Festival. The festival brings together filmmakers, industry executives, Silicon Valley notables and celebrities, to mix and mingle with visitors and patrons seeking to discover new talent, experiences and witness the best in short subject entertainment in categories including comedy, drama, documentaries, sci-fi, horror, comedy, action, fantasy and many more.

The Maker has done it again, picking up its 13th award. This time, we must thank the ITSA Film Festival in Sonora, California whose judges voted it the ‘Best Animated Film’. The festval is a multi-day event featuring short films and animations from around the world and includes film-related panel discussions, workshops, and live performances.

We’re proud to announce that The Maker has won the ‘Best International Short Animation’ award at the 19th edition of the Granada Film Festival. Set in the city of Grenada, Spain, the jury said the following about The Maker’s win (translated using Google) “for good design, animation art, photography and music, by its dense content, structured around an atmosphere … that make this work, a short round”.

Thanks to the incredible support from our fans, in a landslide victory, The Maker wins the audience voted award for ‘Best Short Film’ At TheShortList Film Festival. Run by Hollywood industry news organization The Wrap News Inc, the festival brought together 12 award winning short films showcasing the best of the best from this year’s top international film festivals. Visit our facebook page for photos from the event.

The Maker has picked up the ‘Best World Cinema Short Film’ at the Indianapolis International Film Festival. Since 2004, the Indy Film Fest has quickly grown into one of the Midwest’s fastest-growing and most-watched film festivals — and one of the most valued annual cultural events in the city. Many thanks to the festival and judges for acknowledging our film.

We’re honoured and proud to announce that The Maker has been awarded the Grand Prize at the 2012 Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF). The festival has been running for 16 years and is Korea’s biggest comic book and animation festival. Congratulations to the Maker crew who helped make this happen.

The Maker was awarded ‘Best Animated Short’ at the 2012 Sydney Film Festival. The Dendy Awards judges remarked: “The Maker delivered a concept and world with astonishing effect, which resonates long after viewing”. This is the second Academy qualifying film festival The Maker has won this month. Visit our facebook page for photos from the event.

The Maker has been lucky enough to pick up various awards over the past 12 months, but none as big or exciting as this! We’re happy to report The Maker was awarded ‘Best Animation’ at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival. This is an Academy Recognised film festival which means we’ll be able to submit The Maker into the 2013 Academy Awards. Many thanks to the festival jurors for acknowledging the hard work of our entire crew.

Animayo, the International Festival of Animated Films, Visual Effects and Video-Games has awarded “The Maker” a special jury mention during their recent festival. The international jury members included Jean Thoren (owner and president of the prestigious Animation Magazine), Roger Kupelian (matter painter, FX and illustrator), Patryk Kizny (art director, astrophotographer and digital visual artist) and Damián Perea (animator, producer and director of Animayo Festival 2012).

We’re very pleased to report that The Maker was awarded ‘Best Animated Short’ at the Newport Beach Film Festival. Established in 1999, the festival featured 460 different films and drew more than 30,000 attendees. Many thanks to the festival for their acknowledgement!

The Maker recently had the honor of screening at the SXSW and while the film didn’t walk away with any prizes, the film’s poster did! Presented by iStockphoto, The Maker poster was awarded the ‘Audience Award’ as part of the SXSW Film Design Awards. [View Poster Here]

We’re excited to announce that The Maker has been nominated for the ‘Best Music in a Short Film’ category at the APRA Screen Music Awards. Congratulations to composer Paul Halley who is responsible for the film’s captivating score and deserves this wonderful recognition for his work. His track ‘Winter’ can be heard in full here.

The Screen Music Awards acknowledge excellence and innovation in the genre of screen composition across 13 categories, including compositions for documentaries, short films, mini-series, children’s television and feature film scores. Panels of highly respected Australian film and television composers determine four nominees per category.

The 2011 Screen Music Awards will be held in Sydney on Monday 14th November.

Tonight Christine Kezelos the Producer of The Maker was awarded the ‘Best of Festival’ at the Lady Filmmakers Festival in LA. She also scooped the second prize, the ‘Ladies Kick Butt’ award for her other animation, Zero. Way to go Christine!

This year, RIIFF received a record 4,537 submissions from filmmakers representing more than 60 countries. This was narrowed down to just over 200 finalist films.

Many thanks to the crew for all their hard work and to the festival for recognising our labor of love.

About The Maker

After the successful 2010 festival run of their first stop motion animation Zero, the award winning film-making husband and wife duo Christopher and Christine Kezelos introduce their latest short film, a 5’17 stop motion animation, The Maker (continue)

Watch Our Other Animations

Smooshies
A web series starring crocheted Smooshie monsters that get into mischief around the house with disastrous results.
Zero
Born into a world of numbers, an oppressed zero discovers that through determination, courage, and love, nothing can be truly something.